Twitter is a great social network – due to the vast number of accounts (288m monthly active users) and tweets (500m posted per day), there is always something interesting happening there, and is the best network to see people’s reactions to live events, everything from sporting events to breaking news to Big Brother evictions.

While Twitter can be seen as a huge opportunity, this is only the case if you are doing it right! There are a number of signs that scream out ‘we don’t know what we’re doing here’, and here are ten of the most common:

1) No Profile Pic – This is Twitter’s equivalent of falling at the first hurdle. Twitter is a social network, so take the chance to share your face or brand. With so many spam Twitter accounts not having profile pics, you are not keeping good company without one.

2) Incomplete Bio – You have only got 160 characters, but you should use this space to something about yourself, and a reason to follow you. The viewer is only one click away from following you, so use the bio to encourage them to take the plunge.

3) Retweet Machine – Retweets are a great way of showing appreciation for the content of other Twitter users. But it is still important to have some of your own content, but of you can’t do that, when you are sharing someone else’s content, select ‘Quote Tweet’ and add your own comments.

4) No Interaction – It is a cliché, but Twitter is a social network, so being social is an important part of it. There are hundreds of millions of Twitter accounts, and while you wouldn’t want to socialise with all of them, you will definitely find someone to chat with (try Jus_Wilson if you’re struggling!).

5) Tweets Aren’t Varied – Everyone has one main subject which they tweet about (for me its digital marketing), but it is also important to tweet about other things too – you’re not defined by just one thing in your life, right?

6) Hashtag Abuse – The hashtag is a valuable tool to share your conversation and follow a particular subject. But they are open to abuse. I saw a tweet earlier today which had 6 hashtagged words in it – quite an achievement in just 140 characters. And it made the text very difficult to read – so use them smartly and don’t hashtag the life out of your content.

7) Desperation – There is nothing wrong with asking for the odd retweet when you really need one, for example with a charity request. But permanently asking for retweets or follows is at best unimaginative and at worst a bit irritating!

8) Credit where it is due – There is a lot of content around the internet, so it is likely that you are going to share someone else’s work at some point. When you do, it is really important to give credit to the person who wrote the article – as someone who writes a lot of content, it is a great feeling seeing that notification which says that someone has shared your content, so share the love!

9) Auto DMs – Receiving an automated DM after you have followed someone is probably the least personal way of saying hello! Maybe it’s just me, but if you want to reach out to say hello to someone, send them a tweet – you should not keep Twitter conversations private unless you really have to.

10) Random Mentions – While it is nice to receive a ‘@mention’ notification, it is not always good news. There are a lot of accounts who will contact you with their new product or just a link (NEVER click on it!), but without an introduction, this is simply spamming.

Are there any other Twitter behaviours which grind your gears? Leave a comment and share it!